bash if statement question

xscousr · 09-02-2003, 11:06 AM

i have written a script to run in cron to perform functions on files in a particular directory. Once complete the files are moved elsewhere.

My problem is that files will be placed in this directory periodically. I need my script to run nightly and start with an if statement to check to see if the directory is empty and if it is to exit, if not to continue on...

How can i do this?

thanks for any help...

Steave · 09-02-2003, 11:53 AM

what about

Code:

if [ -z `ls /your/dir` ]
then
   don' do anything
else
  do something
fi

[ -z ... ]

checks if the string returned by ls /your/dir is empty -- meaning your directory is empty. notice the ` -- its important to use exactly this apostrophy!

HTH, Steave

xscousr · 09-02-2003, 11:54 AM

figured it out...

#!/bin/bash
#
if [ `ls /test/dir/ | wc -l` -eq 0 ]
then
exit
else
echo "dir is not empty"
fi

xscousr · 09-02-2003, 11:58 AM

thanks for the pointers Steave - i didn't know that one